Something's Missing
by Alex Bee
Summary: A series of one-shots of moments missing from the original series and beyond. Literati with a sprinkling of Java Junkie, a dash of Lorelai and Rory and a whopping scoop of Stars Hollow.
1. Having Fun Isn't Hard

_New York, 1993_

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Luke said as he parked his truck in a nearby parking lot.

"Now you ask? After you just went on a two-minute rant about the $10 parking fee?" Anna asks with humor in her eyes.

Luke sighs, "Yeah, I know. But it's my sister. You don't know my sister."

"Well that's kind of the purpose of this visit— so I can _get_ to know her."

"It's just that Liz is…" Luke struggled to find the right word, "…she's different than me."

"Hold on. Are you about to tell me your sister's a short and ugly woman who is nothing but rays of sunshine year round?" Anna teased.

"You know what I mean."

Anna nodded solemnly, "I get it, Luke. I remember Liz a little bit from when we were in high school."

"The thing with Liz is I never know which version of her I'm gonna get. I've never been to this new apartment, I don't know if it's just somewhere she's crashing with her latest boyfriend, or if she's on some sort of drug or alcohol spree. Sometimes it's a pleasant mixture."

"Hold on, I thought we were meeting her kid." Anna interrupted, confused.

"Yeah, well, he has yet to stop her from going on a River Phoenix level drug bender."

"Wow." Anna breathed out.

"So, again, are you sure you want to do this?" He asked.

Anna paused for a beat, looked Luke in his eyes and said, "I'm sure." with a supportive smile.

Luke returned an appreciative smile and they both climbed out of the car.

The apartment that they were visiting was in Flushing, Queens in the Koreatown neighborhood. Luke immediately hated it more with every step he took. The mixed smell of food and garbage, the buildings that looked like they were either going to crumble to the ground or suddenly be overtaken by the rodents inhabiting the walls and the bustle of people and traffic.

Thankfully, it was a crisp day in November which caused Luke and Anna to walk quickly to the apartment building. Once they reached the unit, Luke buzzed up to the apartment number he had scribbled on a piece of paper torn out of his ordering notebook from the diner. They heard the click of the door to the building being unlocked and walked in.

Liz's apartment was on the fifth floor and each floor looked filthier and more decrepit than the last. When they finally reached the faded gray door reading "5F", Luke took one last look at Anna before knocking.

"I'm coming!" A woman's voice yelled from inside.

The door swung open almost immediately after revealing a young woman in her twenties with shaggy blonde hair and Luke's ears.

"Big brother!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around Luke.

Luke smiled, hugging her back and gave Anna a smirk over his sister's shoulder. Anna inadvertently grinned watching the sweet interaction.

"Come in! Come in! No need to stand out in the hallway," Liz said as she ushered her guests in, "There's an old man that lives on this floor who is convinced that I look exactly like his third wife even though he's about a thousand years older than me. He's sweet, I had a beer at his place the other day," She yammered.

"Liz, you remember Anna Nardini? She was the same year as me at Stars Hollow High." Luke segued immediately trying to ignore his sister's somewhat frightening story.

Anna held her hand out to shake Liz's but Liz went straight for the bear hug, "Oh my god. It is like fate that you two got together after high school. How sweet is that? You didn't see what was in front of you the whole time. It's beautiful, really."

Anna laughed, "It's nice to see you again, Liz. Thanks so much for inviting us to your place." Anna gestured to the apartment.

The studio apartment was lacking in character, unlike its inhabitant, with gray walls, neutral carpeting, and little furniture. There was a mattress on the floor with either dirty or off-white sheets, next to it sat a ten-inch screen television with foil wrapped around the antennas; a kitchen that looked like it had not been cleaned in days with dishes and mugs piling on the sink and take out boxes overflowing the garbage can. It smelled like pizza and cigarettes.

"Of course, of course. I tried to clean it up a little for my guests." She looked at her space proudly. "Now I know it takes some arm twisting to get big brother to drive to the big city but he does it anyways. Isn't he just the best?" Liz asked Anna while gazing at her brother adoringly.

"That he is." Anna agreed with a nod.

"Hey Liz, where's Jess?" Luke asked looking around the room.

"Jess!" Liz called out not tearing her eyes away from her visitors.

From the open window by the mattress that led to the fire escape, emerged a skinny nine-year-old boy with dark unruly hair and a book.

"Jess, get over here and say hi to your Uncle Luke and his friend."

The young boy glued his eyes to the floor as he walked over to the group of adults. He had on a dirty pair of jeans with mysterious stains and ripped holes in them and a faded sweatshirt that said _Stars Hollow Middle School._

"Hi," Jess said when he reached them.

"Hey Jess, I brought you something," Luke said as he dug into his jacket pocket.

Jess looked up in curiosity at what his uncle brought him this time.

Luke handed Jess and brand new deck of cards still unopened in its box.

"Oh, Jess! Me and Mick can teach you how to play poker!" Liz exclaimed.

"Yeah, or Go Fish or something," Luke interjected, glancing at his sister quizzically.

"Thanks," Jess said as he stared blankly at his gift.

"Well I would offer you guys a cup of coffee or something but I don't have any here— or a coffee machine. We can go to the market and grab some if you want. There's this shopping center that's mostly Korean jewelry and clothing stores, let me tell you their stuff is so rad. I wish I knew how to make it!" Liz said holding her fists in the air as she cried out. "But there are a few good cafes on the bottom floor. Feel like checking it out?"

"Sure." Anna agreed at the same time Luke started protesting.

"Great!" Liz exclaimed. "I am jonesing for a nice hot cup of joe." She started to put her denim jacket on, "Hey, maybe that's where the word jonesing came from."

"I think I'm just gonna stay here," Jess said as he started walking backward towards the window.

"Alright." Said his mother.

"No, Liz." Luke intervened. "Jess, why don't you come along with us?"

"No thanks."

Anna could see Luke was going to try to convince him to come out again and said, "No, Luke, it's okay. Spend some time with your nephew. Me and Liz will have a little girls trip." She placed a hand on Luke's arm.

"Sounds good to me!" Liz said.

"No, Anna, are you sure? You don't have to do that." Luke whispered to her.

"It's fine. We'll see you in a little bit." She assured him.

Anna buttoned her coat as Liz led her out the door chattering about the different kinds of jewelry stores in the market.

Luke looked over at the mattress and saw Jess sitting on it, propped against the wall holding the book in his hand and a pencil in his ear as if he had been sitting there the entire time.

"So, what are you reading over there?" Luke asked as he sat down next to his nephew.

Jess held his finger in the page he was studying and closed the book to show his uncle. It was a book with a plain blue cover and white letters that read _Of Human Bondage_ by _W. Somerset Maugham._

"Something for school?" Luke asked.

"Nope," Jess replied.

Luke was puzzled, "So what's it about?"

"It's about an orphan who leaves home to become an artist in Paris and then a doctor in London before he falls for a girl who ruins his life."

"So it's a real upper," Luke said.

"Yup."

Luke glances to the corner on the other side of the room that held books stacked on top of each other. He could easily imagine his young nephew sitting on that same mattress for hours on end reading all those novels. Where was Liz? Why was her son able to just waste time reading all day long in the tiny apartment?

"So does your mom usually leave you home when she goes out?" Luke asked trying to sound casual.

"Yeah. She's usually home by the time I have to go to school, though."

"She leaves for the whole night?" Luke demanded in shock.

Jess nodded nonchalantly as if Luke was asking if it was going to rain that day.

"What about that boyfriend of hers…Mack or something… doesn't he come here?"

"Sometimes." Jess replied, "But I usually try to make myself scarce when that happens."

"Why?" Luke asked, wondering if there was something wrong with this guy his sister was dating.

Jess sighed, placing the open book in his lap, "Because I don't really see the point in meeting someone that's gonna be in New Jersey by Thanksgiving."

"New Jersey?"

"Same guy. Different place to run off to. They're all the same."

It was unnerving for Luke to hear his young nephew speaking these thoughtful and incisive words in the voice of a little boy.

"So…what do you usually do when you mom's gone?" He inquired.

"Read, sleep, walk to school, the library, the park." Jess listed as he grabbed the pencil from behind his ear and began scribbling in the novel.

"I'm guessing you read a lot." Luke gestured to the stack of books in the corner.

Jess glanced at them from his book before immediately returning to his pages, "Not much."

"Well you like going to the library, don't you?"

"Yeah…" Jess answered cautiously.

"Well, why don't we go to the library while your mom and Anna are out?"

"Which one?"

"Whichever one's the closest."

"Okay." Jess closed his book and placed it along with the rest in the corner before walking towards the door.

"It's cold out," Luke said. "Maybe you should grab a jacket."

Jess shifted his weight on his feet for a moment. "I'll be okay." He said before he continued out the door.

As they walked the few blocks to the library, Luke glanced down at Jess, watching his cheeks turn red from the biting wind. "How are you warm in that thing?" Luke asked gesturing to his sweatshirt. "Liz got that 10 years ago, it's no thicker than a t-shirt."

Jess shrugged as he walked up the steps to the old building of the Flushing Queens Library. Luke shook his head in confusion wondering why his nine-year-old nephew was trying to be a tough guy. It's the only explanation for not wearing a jacket in that weather.

As they walked through the fiction section of the library, Luke began picking up random books and skimming the back covers in curiosity.

" _The Catcher in the Rye."_ Luke read, "I've heard of this one. Have you read it?"

"Yeah," Jess said. "It's how I heard about the book that I was reading earlier. One of the characters mentions it."

Luke nodded and placed the book back on the shelf, realizing he was out of his league. After about 10 minutes, Jess found four books he considered interesting enough to borrow and they made their way over to the library desk.

"Do you have a library card?" The elderly librarian lady with leather skin asked Jess over her stereotypical half moon eye glasses.

"No. Could I get one?" Jess asked innocently.

"What's the name?"

"Philip Carey."

Luke looked down at his nephew incredulously but Jess did not return his glance. He maintained eye contact with the woman helping him.

The librarian scribbled the name on a piece of card stock and handed it to Jess. After checking out his books, Luke and Jess started back outside.

"So, back to the apartment okay?" Jess asked his uncle without glancing at him.

"I thought maybe we could grab a bite to eat," Luke said.

"Okay." Jess returned.

The pair stopped at a hot dog stand on the corner and stood next to it trying to absorb some of the heat radiating from it while they ate. Luke was uncomfortable with all the people rushing around, the sounds of the traffic, the smells of all the different foods intermingling. However, his young nephew was completely unbothered.

"So, Philip, how you liking that hot dog there?" Luke asked.

"It's great, Uncle Luke. Thanks." Jess returned and Luke could not tell if he was being sarcastic or genuine.

"Jess, come on, what was that about?" Luke asked desperately.

Jess dug inside of his back pocket and handed Luke a stack of cards. There must have been at least twenty. "What is this?" He asked looking through them. They were all library cards belonging to all different branches of The New York Library with a different name on each of them.

"I like to write in my books. Nothing bad or anything just what I think, mostly underlining things. It's all in pencil but the first few times I tried to return my books they wouldn't let me because they thought it was vandalism. They wanted me to pay a fine or else I wouldn't be allowed to borrow books anymore," Jess continued. "I just figured if I go to different libraries and get new cards each time with new names they have no way to track me."

Luke glanced down at the cards in his and hands and back at his nephew. He could just imagine this young boy walking miles and scouring for change to get enough money to take the subway to Manhattan just to get a few books.

Jess nervously glanced at his uncle before staring back down at his shoes.

"How long have you been doing this?" He asked.

"About five years," Jess replied. "Those cards are just from this month, though."

Luke gaped at the cards for a moment, "Okay." He finally said handing back the library cards. "You ready to go back to the apartment?"

Jess blinked, "Yeah," He said stuffed the cards back in his pocket and fell into step with his uncle as they walked.

"So, why Phil?" Luke inquired.

"It's the name of the main guy in the book I was reading earlier," Jess said while chewing on his food.

"Is that what all of those names are? The names of characters in the books you steal?"

"I guess you could say it's my burning cigarette," Jess smirked while he rubbed his arm with his free hand.

It was in that moment that Luke realized Jess didn't own a jacket to wear in the forty degrees New York weather.

* * *

A/N: Please tell me if any of you readers noticed my homages to the original series. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think. ~Alex


	2. Use The Baster

Jess rolled over on the bumpy couch in search of his cell phone. Realizing that he had left it on the coffee table last night before switching it out for the book that was now laying on his chest, he grabbed the device and squinted at the light it gave off as he lifted it from the table. 4:57 AM.

With a sigh, he rose from the couch that was suffocating from the pillows and blankets Lorelai had laid down the night before. He walked down the small hallway to the kitchen where he flicked on the dim overhead light. Grabbing a glass from the cabinet, he walked over to the sink to fill it with water.

He heard a small creak and turned around to see Rory standing at her bedroom door with flannel pajama pants and a faded oversized Yale t-shirt.

"Hey," she said.

"Sorry if I woke you up," Jess whispered.

"You didn't," She sat down at the table and raised one leg up to her chest, hugging it. "I've been writing all night."

"Jeez, Anne Frank, make sure you sleep once in a while." He just then noticed the half full coffee pot with the warmer still turned on.

"I resent that title."

"Locking yourself in your room for hours on end writing your memoir? I better leave town before Taylor starts requesting yellow Stars of David." Jess joined her at the table.

"Haha." The brunette laughed sarcastically. "Are you telling me that you got all eight hours of your REM cycle while you were writing?"

"I don't think your REM cycle should last eight hours."

"What do you mean?"

"You're supposed to sleep for eight hours but I don't think your REM cycle is supposed to last that long."

"Whatever, Dr. Shepherd. Are you telling me that you got your healthy amount of sleep during your entire writing process."

"No," He responded thoughtfully, "But I was also much younger than you are now."

"Hey!" She laughed and playfully hit his forearm.

Jess grinned and watched her continue to giggle. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail that swung from the very top of her head while stray pieces of hair framed her face and neck. In so many ways she looked every bit the young seventeen year old girl she was when they had met. Only now, her eyes crinkled more when she laughed and her eyes were impossibly even more blue.

After she had calmed down, Rory said, "Sometimes I wish that I had started this years ago. It would've saved me a lot of time." She continued, "You were so ahead of me even back then."

Jess snorted, "That was the only time in my life I've ever been ahead of you."

"Jess—" She started.

"Nah Rory, you graduated from Yale, hell—you graduated from high school. You were the editor of an ivy league university newspaper, you went to Europe before I even got a semblance of my life together."

"I've still never been to California." She said jokingly.

Their eyes locked and their smiles dissolved.

"Ouch, Gilmore." He tried to cut the tension.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to—"

Jess waved her off, "It's fine. I deserved that one."

"No, you don't. That was so long ago, I don't even know why…" She struggled to find the words to complete her thought.

She stared at the man that sat across from her, so much more patient and thoughtful than when they had first met. His hair was longer, his face carried a shadow, and he was stronger physically, emotionally, mentally. He had matured in ways that she always knew he could but it was still impossible to believe this man stood before her.

He smiled, "Have you gotten to writing that part of the book yet?"

Rory stared at her hands, "Almost. I'm still trying to find an organic way to introduce you to the story. I don't even know if I'm going to include it."

"Include me?"

"No, I mean I'm definitely including you. You brought something out of me and mom's relationship that wasn't there before but she and me never really discussed our break up."

"Really?"

"No, I mean you left, I graduated from Chilton, and then two days later we were on a plane to Europe."

"Huh." Jess drummed his fingers on the table and stared at a spot on the wall behind Rory's head.

"What?"

"Nothin'."

"What?"

"I guess I'm just surprised. Not that I thought I was a huge part of your life or anything I just figured you two were finally on the same page at that point as far as having the same level of hatred for me. You two could now throw darts at my picture together and talk about what a jerk I was."

"Please, Jess, I never hated you." Rory got up to pour herself coffee. "I didn't really discuss you after you left."

"Really?" He asked genuinely.

"Did you discuss me?" She countered as she sat back down.

"I didn't have anyone to discuss things with."

"What about your dad? I thought that was the whole point of going out there."

"He sort of was but after I found out that I wasn't graduating, I knew that I couldn't stay at Luke's and Jimmy was all of a sudden semi-interested in me. There was just sort of nowhere else for me to go."

"I guess it was sort of like me living with my grandparents when I dropped out of Yale."

"Except I didn't get my own personal servants, cooks, and 5000 count Egyptian thread sheets but sure." He teased.

Rory rolled her eyes at his comment, "So what was it like?"

"Living with my dad?"

"In California? The only images in my head of Venice are from The Big Lebowski and Californication."

"It was cool for a little while. Beach Boys songs stuck in my head for a few days, smoked with a couple of the pizza delivery guys, bought a few records, and I was over it."

"Have you been back since?"

"A couple times. Jimmy and his girlfriend are sort of freaks but her kid's cool. She's around April's age." Jess remembered Lily when he first met her with her glasses that were too big for her face and her habit of reading in strange places.

"Speaking of April, have you bought her a birthday present yet?" Rory asked.

"Weirdly enough, yeah. She apparently really loves one of the authors we publish who writes all about scientific theory and shit. She said as long as I could get her a copy of his newest book, I didn't have to go to her birthday dinner."

Rory grimaced, "So you're not going?"

"You just want me to go so April doesn't have a meltdown with you again." He smirked.

"You heard about that?" She groaned.

"Oh yeah, I got the same meltdown. She asked me if I knew anyone she could buy weed from that way she seems like less of amateur around this group she's going with to Standing Rock."

Rory giggled, "Did you?"

Jess shrugged, "I might've stolen some from Matt's stash."

She gasped jokingly, "You are such a bad big brother!"

"Hey, I am not her brother." He corrected her with a wagging finger.

"You might as well be."

He didn't argue with that. Instead, they met each other's gaze and saw the playfulness in each other's eyes. It felt so right to be sitting there with the other discussing normal life events past, present, and future without any lingering awkwardness. It was Jess that broke their stare.

"Rest of that coffee up for grabs?" He nodded towards the pot sitting on the counter.

"Sure, you'll just owe me some later." She took a sip from her mug.

"Fair enough."

"Are you going to sleep at all tonight or this morning I guess?" He asked as he poured.

"Ugh," Rory groaned. "Don't remind me." She buried her face into her hands. When she took her hands away and looked down at the table she saw that Jess had slid a pop tart under her arms. She gave him a grateful smile and broke off a piece, "You know this is the first time in this entire writing process that I've been stuck. And it's all because of you."

"Me?" He exclaimed incredulously. "Don't blame me for your writer's block, Gilmore."

"Well, I'm having trouble writing you in."

"So skip it."

"I can't just take you out of the story."

"I'm not telling you to. Just come back to it. You don't have to write the whole thing chronologically."

"I guess," She sighed and broke off another piece.

"Besides 2001, wasn't a great year for any of us, it's okay if that chapter's a little thinner than the rest."

"I don't know," Rory smiled. "That was a pretty great time in my life. Everything was so simple. I had school, the paper, Paris, the town, Friday night dinners, Mom, Dean."

"Dean." Jess rolled his eyes, "That's a blast from the past. What's Andy Griffith up to these days?"

"He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and their million kids."

"That blonde he married in high school?"

"Uh, no. Some girl he met in college."

"How shocking that Dean Wonderbread Forrester became just another divorce statistic." He said sarcastically.

Rory thanked her lucky stars that Luke hadn't told Jess all about her and Dean's "round two" relationship after she broke up him and Lindsey. It wasn't one of her prouder moments.

"Hey remember when you had a black eye and I thought it was from Dean and then you lied and said it was a football."

"Nope." Jess deflected and rose from his seat to refill his glass of water at the sink.

"Oh, now I _know_ you remember! What was it really? Tell me!"

Jess laughed, "No way." He turned around and Rory was standing right behind him.

"Come on, Jess. You have to. Because if you don't tell me your story then who knows what story I'll write in the book. I can say anything. I can make up a whole imaginary tale that lasts thirty-five pages."

"I smell a New York Time's Bestseller already," He quipped.

"Jess…" Rory pouted.

"Hey, you believed my football story the first time."

"No, I didn't you just distracted me from interrogating you further."

"Yeah, well I was good like that." He winked.

She went to hit him playfully but he grabbed her hand before it could make contact with his chest. She let out a small gasp and stared at their hands together for a moment before looking up at him. She opened her mouth to respond but before any words could come out the hallway lights were turned on and Luke walked into the kitchen.

"What are you two doin' up?" The older man asked the two standing by the kitchen sink. Their hands quickly separated and Rory took her seat back at the table.

"I was writing." She said quickly and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"I was getting something to drink," Jess said as he took a sip from his glass.

Luke looked between the two of them. Jess standing at the sink with gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt and Rory with her pajama's on. Luke looked at the table with two half-drunk cups of coffee and a couple of pop-tarts. "Are you helping out at the diner later? I'm putting the turkeys in the oven now but I'll need your help serving. Caesar will need my help in the kitchen most of the day." He asked his nephew.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a few hours," Jess responded.

"Good." Luke started between the two of them again. "I'll see you both at the inn later for dinner?"

"Yup, I'll be there," Rory said.

Jess nodded.

"All right, well I'll see you two later…" Luke walked away slowly and grabbed his keys that sat at the entryway table.

"Bye, Luke," Rory called out when she heard the front door open.

After a few moments, she looked up at Jess.

"Why do I feel like it's 2003 and we just got caught making out on the couch above the diner?" Jess said.

They shared a soft laugh and finished their snacks.

"Well, I'm gonna sleep for a couple more hours until I have to be at Luke's," Jess said as he brought their mugs to the sink and threw out their wrappers.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to try to sleep too." Rory stood up and stretched out her limbs.

"It'll help with the writing." Jess offered. "Sometime's a few hours sleep helps clear up your mind."

Rory nodded and headed to her bedroom. She did drift off a few minutes after her head hit the pillow. When she did wake up a few hours later, she laid in bed and thought about where she had left off in her story and how she wanted Jess to be introduced in the next segment. She realized that Jess was such a difficult character to introduce organically because he didn't have an end. It didn't feel like he ever had a beginning either.

Over the course of their relationship, they had been friends, lovers, and family; he belonged in all three categories. Jess was a character in the story of Rory Gilmore that had been there for so long and fit so well that it almost felt like he had always been a part of it. It was difficult to introduce Jess because she hadn't learned from him all that needed to be learned. Their relationship still has yet to finish teaching her lessons because their relationship is a constant.

Rory knew that eventually she would be able to find a way to introduce Jess in the book and tell the part of his story that affected her and her mother's relationship. However, the scariest part to Rory is that she doesn't think there will ever be an ending to the story of her and Jess.

* * *

A/N: Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading chapter 2. I definitely got inspired after watching the revival. In case you didn't catch the hint from Luke, this takes place on Thanksgiving 2016, a few weeks after Luke and Lorelai's wedding. Please let me know your thoughts and any moments that you think are missing from the series! Thanks! ~Alex


End file.
